On: ClearSkies – open-source file syncing without clou...

[atmosx]

What exactly is the function of untrusted peers? Speed up the sync?

[jffry → atmosx]

To use a friend's machine as an off-site secondary backup. They can store encrypted data, but cannot view or push changes to the data. I'm guessing.

[toomuchtodo → jffry]

If its untrusted, how can it be a canonical reference?

[scott_karana → toomuchtodo]

Cryptographic hashes and signatures, I presume?

[jewel → atmosx]

My original intent was that you could have it running on a linode or other virtual machine where you don't trust the hardware.

[maho → atmosx]

Internet connections can be quite asymmetrical. I have a 32 MBit/s downlink, but only 1 MBit/s up. That makes updating data on my tablet with data from home painfully slow unless I am at home. For me, a fast peer that I don't need to trust is pretty helpful.

But apart from speed and redundancy, I also hope for economy of scale. If there were a small market where several hosters offer peered hosts with X GB for $Y/month, it could drive costs down for everyone. Dropbox is asking for $0.10/GB/mon, which is about twice as high as it could be if the market were efficient.

[nacs → atmosx]

Likely also for data redundancy if you only have 1 computer (or if all your computers/peers are in one building the untrusted peers could be your 'offsite backup' of sorts).